When you lube your distributor, where does one put the lube? From the top from underneath? Is dialectic grease O.K. or does it have to be Bosch Distributor Lube?

Lube,lube,lube..

One drop of clean engine oil on the felt pad under the rotor.
A light film of grease on the cam, IFF you are still using points. About as much as will stick to the point of a pencil (if you are still using pencils...)

The original claim-to-fame of the Bosch grease was that it was a high melting point grease. Dialectric grease is optimised as an insulator and maybe not so much as a lubricant. Just about any good synthetic grease will have the same high-melting-point characteristics if you don't want to go buy a lifetime supply (1 tube...) of the gold standard Bosch High-Melting Point grease.

However - every self-respecting German-car mechanic should have a tube of Bosch distributor grease in his/her toolbox...

Joe -

& lube the gears while out, if you've pulled the dizzy.

Otherwise the main thing is the dab on the cam(s) that actuates thing 2 sets of points - trigger points for the EFI & ignition points for the spark.

It allows them to move freely & not hang or jump in action, otherwise it can give erratic running &/or prematurely wear down the little actuator tab end on the points if dead dry (but there's usually at least some residual on there from the last time).

Heck, the Bosch grease isn't that expensive & made for the purpose, plus it looks good in your tool box!

BTW Joe -

I got woken up at about 4 am this morning when some drunk yahoo in a dark colored smallish fastback whacked the guy's El Camino across the street on Shaffer, then drove off wheels smoking & squealing from his front end rubbing. I got a quick glimpse of it through the blinds when it woke us up.

We & the cops from OPD searched the area around here & Chapman but found nothing, but he must've seized that engine seeing all the coolant loss etc. & pushing one or both front wheels jammed.

Damage must be major on the culprit, cuz he pushed an early 80's El Camino back 10 feet & up over the curb & into his Mom's Toyota, & the El Camino's frame is bent & LF wheel pushed back into the rear wheel well solid!

Call my cell or email me if you see such a hulk parked somewhere around Orange, cuz he couldn't have gotten far. With the anticipated front end damage of a smaller car whacking & pushing the larger El Camino, shape of the car I saw very breifly & sound of the engine - it MAY have been a Porsche. Otherwise some sort of a "fastback" body style in the small size of that from the look I got.

The wrecked El Camino is parked near my house in front of the Orange HS tennis courts if you drive up Shaffer sometime. Poor kid & his Dad have been working on restoring it & recently had MAACO repaint it to the nifty Dark Gun Metal Grey Metalflake on it, & I "donated" 4 almost new Kumho 195/70HR14 tires from the alloys I got fo my wife's 88 Westy (wrong type/size for our Vanagon).

Plz keep an eye out around town, cuz they're probably going to lose the El Camino to totaling, & have 2 deductibles & insurance battles to deal with, since the A-hole damage both their family's cars!

Thanx!
Tom
714-469-6769
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zum Beispeil:

I was taught in the 60's to wipe the high temp grease on the front of the points rubbung block so that as the block rubbed on the cam it would keep depositing on the block and cam as they rubbed. If you put it on the cam it will still end up on the rubbing block but if it's too much it will go where it doesn't need to be also.

"& lube the gears while out, if you've pulled the dizzy." WHAT?

The Cap'n

maybe on a sbc or ford

"Captain says What?" that was an 80's hit, "Captain says what?".." what you want?"

Got it Cap'n Thanks..

I use the Crane xr700 optical efi.. no points..

Wot? - Captain Sensible (ex. lead singer with british punk group The Damned)

I learned the same method Charlie.

Kap'n - IIRC the distributor is gear driven (gear at the base of the shaft), in the 914 stock set-up - yes/no??

The distributor is gear driven, but the gear is in the case. When you pull the distributor there is a flat that slides into a recess on the geared part- no gear on the bottom of the distributor.

Thanx for the pic. I was told to always get some fresh grease on the gears when you have it out, so IIRC you can get it into there without pulling out the gear set from the case with one of those small grease guns with the hose down the hole.

Some of the Chevy & GM dizzy's that I helped my Dad & Uncle with & my college Pontiac usually canme out with the gear on the dizzy shaft, but was a PITA to get back in there IIRC!

The gear is inside the case with the engine oil. It's being lubed constantly. Only time its gets lubed by you is upon engine assembly. Distributor in and out is pretty straight forward (although there is no need for it unless the o-ring needs to be changed) but leave the drive gear in place. It can be very frustrating to reinstall for a first timer.

BTW, all that grease from the grease gun will end up in the oil anyway. Probably can't hurt, but then I can't say it won't.

All my instructors drummed into our heads that when you assemble something- anything- on a vehicle you lube it with the fluid that it is going to be running in. Engine assembly moly lube is the only exception.

Rear axle bearings get lubed with gear oil, caliper pistons get lubed with brake fluid, engine seals get lubed with engine oil, etc.

I don't know how long it would take the engine oil to break down the heavy grease, if it would ever, but for that entire time you would have improper lubrication. As far as removing the distributor drive gear while the engine is assembled- they make a tool and they are CHEAP ($1.95 on Ebay).

I agree with just the drop or two of oil on the felt wicking pad under the rotor. No other lube required with electronics. The dizzy body will suck a small amount of engine oil inside during operation. I prefer thin oil like singer sewing machine oil/3N1 oil. I wouldn't use 20/50, too thick to get through the felt. Make sure you do the snap test while you have it apart.

Undertire, your always a straight shooter assist. But what is the "snap" test?

Okay - back up the truck here -

We're talking 2 or 3 different things here - Bosch grease on the ignition & trigger points (obviously not on electronic triggers), light machine oil on the felt, & lastly - no - not grease in the mini-gun for the gears - but a light gear oil so it has some cling to stay & work into the gears during break-in.

Lumps of grease in the oil system would sure muck something up!

If you pull it out as noted above, then you can lube the gear on the dizzy bit, but not on those gears driving it inside the case. If you're doing a full rebuild with the case open, then you can certainly oil them with motor oil of the same or slightly higher viscosity (again to cling there until it "runs in"), but maybe an Orangutan has fingers long enough to do it through the dizzy port, & up to 50 wt. motor oil will mostly just run off (as it's formulated to do). So sticking 60-70 wt gear oil in a small lube gun with a 6" or so hose makes it easier to reash where it needs to be.

But yes - pre-lube on assembly with like kind lubricant as you were taught.

Other reasons to pull the dizzy other than O-ring replacement:
1. Bad Dizzy
2. Worn gears, shaft, engaging teeth, etc.
3. Easier to replace the Vacuum Advance unit with the top part out (no need to pull the gear).
4. Full engine rebuild - stock or modified
5. You're doing a full resto & don't want to clean everything in place
... maybe some more reasons.

Joe - I think he's referring to checking that the spring & arm on the points is/are actually working & free to snap the points together as the cam turns to actuate the spark (& actuate fuel on the EFI at the trigger points with the stock set-up).

If not - then I'm curious to know what else the "snap test" is myself!!??

Tom, I can think of several more reasons to pull the diz, but that wasn't the point. There is no reason to pull the diz to lube anything. The o ring is above the drive tang, so it gets oiled by the engine oil too.

Maybe the snap test is for the advance. I'm curious too.

Sorry, got tied up in meetings

Yes snap test is for the advance. Grab the rotor and turn it, forget witch way right now, but doesn't matter. Should turn a few degrees and let it go. Should snap back to the original position. I've run in to a few cars that have had stuck mechanical advance shafts in them. If it's slow the light oil will fix it, just keep doing it till it does come back. If it's stuck like someones yellow car was removal and cleaning will be required.

In the initial post I made - I simply said that IF the dizz was out, might as well oil the gears before reinstalling - NOT to pull it to lube as a standard maint. item, since I didn't know if it was out or in by the original post.

Somehow it just went sideways from there given the string of other posts. Sorry to get everything off tract with that one seemingly innocent comment/suggestion.

CharlieW's post #6 is the best answer of the actual original question by Cowboy Joe of where to put the grease - assuming he's just doing a new set of ignition points (since he doesn't have triggers anymore).

When you want to make sure that your distributor is clean and all the internal parts are moving freely, what do you clean it with and what do you lube it with? Also, where do you put said lubricant? I've seen lots of threads that hint at cleaning/rebuilding a distributor, but I never feel like I've gotten complete enough info to actually undertake the job and I'm pretty sure my distributor could use it.

I'm running a Pertronix so I don't need to worry about Bosch grease on the lobes, but I'd like to make sure it's working well.

The snap test will provide info on the internal parts moving freely. As far as taking it apart, it's not too bad. Remove the distributor,remove the FI contacts, remove the wire spring around the pin on the drive dogs. Mark the drive dogs so it goes back on the same direction. Pound the pin out. Remove the drive dogs. CHECK FOR BURS around the pin hole at this point. If there are burs sticking up, it will damage the sleeve coming out. Carefully remove breaker points and advance plate and vac canister. Don't damage the braided wire. Slide the entire shaft out the top of the dizzy. There is a fiber washer between the drive dogs and the dizzy body. Be careful. They break very easy. At this point you can clean the advance weights and surrounding area. I used WD 40 to clean everything up, brake clean will work to. Light oil everything and re-assemble.

Don't forget to lube the FI contacts with proper lube.
Don't mix up screws, get one too long in the wrong place and the advance won't work. If you loose parts PM me. I have a box o dizzy parts in the garage.